Juan Francisco Rosa accumulated “constant and substantial debts” with public administrations for years, which amounted to more than 6.7 million euros in unpaid taxes, fees and even Social Security contributions from the workers of the Fariones hotel, while diverting the money to other companies he owned. This is according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, in the indictment of the new trial faced by the businessman, along with four members of his family, for corporate crimes, misappropriation and document forgery.
According to the Prosecutor's Office in that document, he accumulated a debt of 3,321,730 euros with Social Security alone, having failed to pay the contributions of the hotel workers for 8 years, in the period between 2008 and 2016. In addition, between 2009 and 2014 he also failed to pay the Tax Agency the personal income tax withholdings of his employees.
To this was added another debt of 1,197,496 euros with the Canary Islands Tax Administration, “for the failure to pay the correct amounts in respect of IGIC derived from its own economic activity in the period between 2003-2014”.
Finally, between 2008 and 2016 he also failed to pay municipal taxes to the Tías Town Council, reaching a debt of 1,238,940 euros. And all this while in that same period, the company Hotel Los Fariones SA granted million-dollar loans to other companies in the Rosa group, guaranteed loans and mortgages and renounced the exploitation of its own assets in favour of other companies of Juan Francisco Rosa, such as Salmepa.
“They compromised the assets to guarantee debts of the Rosa group”
“The directors seriously compromised the company's assets to guarantee debts of the 'Rosa group', and even personal debts or debts of other defendants, and also, without establishing any remuneration for these guarantees, while at the same time failing to comply with the company's obligations regarding the payment of workers' contributions, the payment of IGIC, the payment of personal income tax of its workers and the payment of various taxes, levies and local taxes”, states the document of the private prosecution, exercised by Garcia Bravo e Hijos SL.
It was this company, as a minority partner of Hotel Los Fariones SA, who ended up filing the lawsuit that gave rise to this case, after detecting the accounting irregularities and capital diversions that they claim were hidden from them for years. “The situation led to the entity having a negative result during numerous financial years and a financial risk that exceeded the value of its main asset, the Hotel Los Fariones”, they denounce.
Regarding the “overcost” that the non-payment of all types of taxes meant for the company, the Public Prosecutor's Office puts it at more than 2.3 million euros “in terms of interest, surcharges, penalties and costs” that they had to face. The Prosecutor's Office even stresses that in 2014 a mortgage had to be constituted on the hotel “to guarantee with the General Treasury of the Social Security the postponement of the huge debt”.
“An unsustainable financial hole was generated, the consequences of which continue to affect the financial stability of the company to this day”, argue the plaintiffs, who in their indictment are asking for up to 11 years in prison for Juan Francisco Rosa, for two of his children -Raquel and Juan Andrés- and for Anselmo Rosa Perdomo and Rosa María Rosa, from whom they are also demanding the return to the company of a total of more than 43 million euros.
A “criminal plot” with a “planned roadmap”
García Bravo e Hijos SL held 25% of the company Hotel Los Fariones, but claims that the directors and defendants in the case -all members of the Rosa family in different periods- hid the company's accounts from them for years, in what they describe as a “criminal plot”, which has caused “a millionaire loss” to the company, and therefore to them as partners.
In addition, he adds that the facts reflect a “criminal roadmap planned by the defendants with the purpose of expelling the minority partner through various capital increases”. Precisely this is what they used, according to the prosecution, to “illegally” reduce the percentage of participation of Gracia Bravo e Hijos SL, which fell from 25% to 24.99%, which meant losing the right of access to information.
To this end, and to justify all the other allegedly fraudulent operations, the prosecution claims that they “simulated” dozens of General Meetings, to which they were never summoned. And he also denounces that “they made the Minutes Books of the Meetings held between 1986 and 2014 disappear”, which were also not handed over to the Court, despite the numerous requests made during the investigation of this case.
Along with the loans and guarantees to other Rosa companies, the “imputation of artificial debts” to the company and the “invoicing for non-existent services”, the prosecution claims that there was also a “asset stripping” of Hotel Los Fariones SA, with the sale of “various assets”, “well below the real market price”.
The most notable was the sale of Lanzasuiza SA, which belonged 50% to the company and whose main asset was the estate on which the La Perla hotel was located. This sale was carried out in 2014 for a price of 4.3 million euros, when that plot alone had an appraisal value of between 19 and 24 million euros, considering “the provisions contained” in the Second Modernisation Plan of Puerto del Carmen”, which had been approved shortly before.
In addition, Lanzasuiza held a right to capitalise on the tourist beds for the change of use of these lands (conversion from tourist to commercial), which the expert reports value at 4,797,158 euros.
The company assumed “personal expenses” of Juan Francisco Rosa
In addition, Hotel Los Fariones SA did not even receive the full amount of the low price established for the sale of Lanzasuiza. In the case of two purchasing companies, they undertook to assume in exchange some alleged debts of Lanzasuiza, which in reality corresponded to other Rosa companies. As for Rafael Lasso Cabrera, the part he acquired amounted to 645,079 euros, but he never paid them, or at least not to Hotel Los Fariones. What he did do at that time, according to his own statement in court, was to make a “personal loan” to Juan Francisco Rosa of 500,000 euros.
Rosa himself also benefited directly and personally from other operations, according to the prosecution. Among other things, he used the Hotel Los Fariones to guarantee a personal debt amounting to 462,778 euros, while “the contributions of the workers continued to be unpaid to the General Treasury of the Social Security”.
In addition, the prosecution also claims that Rosa charged the company for his self-employed insurance, being “expenses that did not correspond to it, but were clearly personal”.
“The absolute trust placed by the minority partner García Bravo e Hijos S.L., from 1996 to 2014, in the people who carried out the corporate management, has enabled the defendants to carry out a real operation of asset stripping of the company Hotel Los Fariones S.A., the minority partner having seen how its corporate assets were irreparably damaged as a result of the actions carried out by the defendants”, concludes the prosecution.
